“My first Grammy for Record Of The Year. I have seven in all, and six of them were in a row. Not too shabby.

“We cut the track live at Gold Star Studios - me and Tedesco, Herb, the horn players from the TJB. Herb and Jerry Moss were the producers, and Larry Levine was the engineer.

“Even though it was already a well-known song, Herb was doing it his own way. After the intro, though, I noticed that nobody was coming in right. We did about three or four takes and nothing was working. So I just looked everybody in the eyes, as if to say, ‘Follow me,’ and I went ‘boom-boom-boom-boom’ on the bass drum and ‘diddley-diddley-diddley’ on the snare. There it was! Everybody came in beautifully.

“That drum part became the hook of the song. Herb loved it. A Taste Of Honey became a worldwide smash and my first Record Of The Year.”

Listen: Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass - A Taste Of Honey (1965)